Chapter 5: The Ice

Victor could have jumped for joy at the idea of Seva skating, but he tried to rein his enthusiasm in a little bit, not wanting to scare the boy away from something Victor felt would make his new son very happy. He noticed Seva was transfixed by Yuuri's movements. The little boy even copied some of those movements.

"So cute!" Victor gushed, clasping his hands together, "Come, my little one, let's see if we can't find some skates. For now, we will have to use some rink skates, but if you like skating, Yuuri and I will have some ordered or even made just for you."

Victor was elated over the prospect of Seva skating. Anton had tried but he had not been very graceful. He was a great dancer, but on the ice, he was like a newborn deer. The memory brought a laugh welling up in Victor's throat.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at you, my little one, just at a memory," he said, taking Seva's hand walking to where Yuko and Takeshi Nishigori stood near the skate counter, "Seva, these are Yuuri's friends. The woman is Yuko and the man is Takeshi. They are the parents of the girls I told you about."

Victor noticed Seva shy away from Takeshi a little and he wondered, briefly, why that was. "Seva understands English so you can talk to him in English," Victor said, smiling down at the boy.

"Oh, he's so cute!" Yuko cried, bending down to meet the boys eyes, hands on her knees, "Hello Seva. Are you here visiting?"

But, the look on Victor's face told her something was wrong.

"Victor what is it?" she asked before her husband could stop her.

She reached out to pat the little boys head but was confused when he hid behind Victor's legs. "I'm sorry did I frighten him?" she asked, looking at the boy sadly.

"No, no, you did nothing wrong," Victor assured her, "Seva is the son of my best friend, who has been killed. I was left custody of the boy, so he is our son now. Isn't that right, Seva?"

Victor noticed the little boy had wondered back to the ice like it was calling him. He watched the boy with soft eyes.

"Seva doesn't talk, but he wants to skate with Yuuri, so can we use some skates?" Victor asked, retrieving his son and guiding him over to the benches, then taking his shoes off so he could tell Yuko what size they needed.

When the skates were secure, Victor put on his own golden bladed pair. He noticed Seva was staring at his blades.

"Do you like the gold blades?" he asked, "You know, it was Anton's idea to make my blades gold. I can still hear him telling me it would mean I would always have my gold, even if I didn't win."

Victor shook away the sadness in his eyes before Seva noticed. He was all smiles as he stood helping Seva stand in front of him.

"Now don't rush yourself. Take it slow out there. You might fall down at first, maybe a lot of times, but you can't let that get to you. It took Yuuri and me a long time to get to the level we are on now."

Victor smiled, taking Seva's hand as they stepped on the ice.

"Yuuri!" he called to get his husbands attention, "Look who wanted to come and see you."

Victor kept still for a moment, just holding Seva's hand. The little boy moved his feet cautiously, but if it weren't for Victor having hold of his hand, he would have fallen. He steadied himself and let go of Victor's hand. His goal was to get to Yuuri, who was nice. Seva wanted more than to just skate. He wanted to skate with Yuuri. After a few false starts, he slid over to Yuuri and grabbed his hand. The unexpected weight on one side knocked Yuuri off kilter and both of them ended up on the ice. Seva closed his eyes, wincing, thinking Yuuri would be mad. He was confused when the Japanese man laughed.

"Well I guess the ice wanted to say hi," he snickered, helping Seva to his feet. "Should we try to skate a lap together?" Yuuri asked, getting a nod from the boy who seemed to understand Yuuri was not mad at all. "Victor you stand in the middle and watch, after all, we need our coach to tell us how we did, right Seva?"

The little boy nodded as he slid over closer to the wall and waited for Yuuri.

As Victor watched Yuuri with their son, he felt his heart swell with pride and warmth.

Watching the two of them together is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

They circled the rink twice, and the boy seemed to be picking up the basics fairly quickly. Victor had honestly thought Seva would have Anton's grace, or the lack thereof on the ice, but he seemed to be very much at ease.

A natural.

Victor smiled as Seva copied one of the arm movements he had seen Yuuri do. It made Victor's heart melt. The ice seemed to make Seva happy, but being on the ice with Yuuri seemed to make him even happier. A little movement nearby caught his eye and he turned his head to look.

"What are you three up to?" Victor said, skating over to the edge of the rink where he saw Axel, Luta, and Loop filming.

"What does it look like? We are making our next viral video. People will eat this up, Yuuri and a skating legend like you, taking time out from your busy schedules to help a little boy skate!" the girls said, dashing off.

Victor was torn between not wanting to share the tender moments between the two of them and wanting to upload the video himself to show off his little family.

"Don't worry, Victor. The girls won't be posting anything" Takeshi said, taking the phone from his daughters.

"No, let them," Victor decided, "I want everyone to see how good a father Yuuri is, and to see my little one for his talent."

Victor returned to the ice, wondering if he was doing the right thing. It nagged at him for awhile after that, but soon he found himself distracted away from thinking about it, his heart ready to burst watching his little family go around and around the rink together.

Yuuri smiled down at Seva. He thought it was very cute when the boy copied him.

"Would you like to stand with Victor and watch me do some jumps, or do you want to go around again?"

Yuuri grinned as Seva's hand tightened on his.

"Okay," he laughed, "we'll go around again."

Victor joined the two, holding one of Seva's hands as Yuuri held the other. The three went around once more, then Victor gently turned the boy so that he was skating backwards and holding on to Yuuri's hands.

"Move your feet like this and spread your arms to balance yourself as you skate that way," Victor directed him as Yuuri let go of him, but continued to skate in front of him in case he should start to fall. Seva seemed unsteady at first, and he wobbled a little before settling and copying as Victor modeled the technique. The three skated backwards around the rink a few times, then Victor guided his son to the edge of the rink and Yuuri built up speed, preparing to practice his jumps.

"You won't be doing this today," Victor chuckled, but if you want, Yuuri and I will teach you to do jumps like we do."

Seva's eyes watched raptly as Yuuri executed a three turn, then performed a beautiful quadruple flip.

"That's a quad flip," Victor said proudly, "Yuuri learned it from me. It's my signature move. It's the one that I'm best known for. Someday, if you decide to compete, we'll figure out what your signature move is."

Seva blinked, then he grabbed Victor's arm and pointed at Yuuri. Victor thought for a moment, then guessed at his meaning.

"You want to know what Yuuri's signature move is?" he asked the boy.

Seva nodded emphatically.

"Ah," Victor said, glancing at his husband, "Yuuri is best known for his lovely step sequences and his combination spins. He always gets high presentation scores because of those elements."

Victor watched in amusement as Seva watched Yuuri jump into a difficult spin combination and he tried a little spin of his own, but fell.

"Easy there," Victor chided him playfully, helping the boy to his feet, "You've already learned a lot for your first day."

Seva looked up at Victor with wide, happy eyes.

"Don't you worry," Victor said, patting his face and tousling the boy's hair, "We'll teach you everything that we know."

Seva remained at Victor's side as Yuuri continued to work on his jumps and spins, his eyes watching closely. Behind the two, Takeshi exited the office, carrying several boxes. As he passed through the office door, one of the boxes caught on the door frame and all of them crashed to the ground, making a loud, rattling bang. At the edge of the ice, Seva startled and crashed into Victor's side, knocking his surprise father down as Takeshi swore, then spotted the two and hastily apologized.

"Eh, sorry, I'm such a klutz. Didn't mean to scare you, kid. You okay?"

Seva stiffened, his eyes on Takeshi's face and his expression one of shock and horror as he remembered.

"What are you doing?" his father cried, "I told you. I'll get the money for him! I just don't want Victor or Yuuri involved. I don't want them hurt. I'll find another way to…!"

Seva cringed and covered his ear as a sharp, echoing bang sounded, and his father made a sound of pain and slumped to the floor. He wanted to scream and run to Anton, but was frozen with fear as the dark-haired man who had shot him moved closer and shot him again. The man turned, and Seva shrank back behind the potted plant he'd hidden behind, but the man's angry scowl, thick black hair and dark eyes imprinted on his mind.

"Don't worry about it," the man growled as he left, "It's not your concern what we do now."

"Seva?" Victor's voice called, breaking the boy out of his reverie.

The boy dove into Victor's arm, burying his face in his surprised father's shoulder.

"Wow, sorry," Takeshi apologized again, "I didn't mean to."

"It's okay," Victor assured him, "I think Seva was just startled."

He stroked his son's hair as Yuuri came to the edge of the ice to join them.

"Good going, Dad!" Axel scolded her father.

"What the heck is going on?" Yuko asked, stepping out of the office.

"Dad dropped some things and scared Seva almost to death!" Lutz tattled.

"Seva is fine," Victor said bracingly, hugging his son to his shoulder and kissing him on the top of the head, "He'll be fine, right Seva?"

"You're all right, Seva-chan," Yuuri said, kneeling with Victor and rubbing the boy's back as he shivered, then peeked out at the others.

His eyes found Takeshi again, and he shuddered. Victor noticed and frowned curiously. As soon as Takeshi walked back into the office, the boy calmed again, and he detached himself from Victor, rubbing his teary eyes.

"See, Seva-chan, it's okay now," Yuuri said kindly.

"We're sorry our dumb dad almost scared you outta your wits," the triplets apologized.

"Hey, Seva," Loop said, tilting her head and smiling, "Wanna skate with us for a little while? Dad and Mom say we have to practice."

"Oh, I don't know," Victor said, glancing uncertainly at the boy.

But Seva took a breath and stood up, then he gave Victor and Yuuri a questioning look.

Yuuri smiled warmly.

"Go ahead, if you like. The girls can help you practice if you want."

"Just don't break him," Victor joked, "We want him back in one piece."

Victor and Yuuri watched with loving eyes as their son skated away with the girls laughing and helping him along.

"He's making friends," Victor said in a touched voice, "He can't even talk to us, but he's making friends, Yuuri!"

"It's great, isn't it?" Yuuri agreed.

"I was worried for a moment, because you know those three can be troublesome, but they are kind, like Yuko," Victor said appreciatively, "They're being so good with him."

Yuuri moved closer and helped Victor back to his feet.

"Did you see how he was looking at Takeshi, though?" Yuuri asked.

"Yeah, I noticed that," Victor acknowledged, "What do you make of it?"

"Hmm," Yuuri said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "I'm not sure, but we'll watch over him. I made an appointment with the child psychologist, like you asked, so we can go over on Friday for a first meeting. We'll go with Seva for that, and then he'll go alone some of the time after that and with us sometimes."

"I hope it helps to get him talking," Victor sighed, watching as the four children skated around the rink together with the three girls talking and laughing and Seva smiling, albeit shyly.

"We'll get him talking," Yuuri said determinedly, "We just need to take it a step at a time."

Victor gave his husband a look of deep affection and hugged a surprised Yuuri tightly, kissing him on the cheek, then on the mouth.

"Mmm, hey, what's that about?" Yuuri laughed.

"You're so good with Seva, Yuuri," Victor gushed happily, "You make our boy so happy! And you inspire him to want to skate!"

Yuuri blushed.

"I really didn't do anything."

"That's right. You're such a good father, you don't have to try. I love you for that!"

"I love you too," Yuuri giggled, "Sometimes you're so funny, Victor."

XXXXXXXXXX

Back in Saint Petersburg, a telephone rang and a man's hand reached out and picked it up.

"What is it?" he asked in a low, deep rumbling voice.

"It's the boy," said another male voice on the other end of the line, "There was a news report here in Japan that said he was found with the body."

"What? That wasn't released in the news reports here."

"I don't know why, Boss, but if he was with the body, he either came in after I shot Anton…"

"Or he witness the execution," the man with the deeper voice concluded, "This complicates things…or…maybe it means that we can proceed with our plans."

"Boss?"

"We were going to abduct Yuuri Katsuki and hold him for ransom. Now, it seems we have two hostages, so Victor will be willing to give more to get them back."

"But, if the boy saw…"

"Then…there will be an accident when we make the exchange. For now, I want you to watch them. Stay close to them and find out what that boy knows, and if he tells them anything. If you see any sign that he is telling them anything, you know what to do."

"Yes, Boss, I know what to do."